Babby's first e-cig

How it werks: the battery heats up a coil, typically kanthal wire, to vaporize the liquid surrounding it. The liquid is commonly held in a silica, cotton, or steel mesh wick.

What you need: a battery, a charger, an atomizer, and some e-liquid.

Recommendations

<$30

Ego-c twist

Kanger Protank

510 Charger

<$60

Vamo VV Mod

Several 18650 or 18350 batteries

Kanger Protank

Charger

Cigalikes

$60

eRoll/eMini

Requires needle-tippled bottle heads for easiy fills of tank

Liquids

E-liquid, or e-juice, is made up of two main ingredients: Propylene Glycol (PG) and Vegetable Glycerin (VG), as well as natural and/or artificial flavorings.
Some specialty liquids may also contain distilled water as a main ingredient.

PG is a low viscosity liquid and has many applications ranging from the suspension agent used in some inhalers, to an ingredient in FDA approved oral and topical medications, as well as a preservative in food and tobacco products. VG is a high viscosity liquid organic compound with applications ranging from use as a sweetener in foods, medications, soaps, and cosmetics.

As PG is a humectant it is recommended that you drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, as otherwise it is common to experience drying of the mouth, sore throat and some unproductive coughing (especially if you've recently quit smoking cigarettes.) If similar symptoms persist when hydrated, or become more severe e.g. sore or swollen mouth, face, gums, and/or back of throat, you should consider switching to a 100% VG concentration as you may be allergic or sensitive to PG.

The percentage of PG/VG is commonly 50/50, but what works best for you depends on your e-cigarette itself, personal preference, and their vaping properties. 100% VG puts out a lot of vapor, produces little to no throat hit, but mutes the flavor while 100% PG is the opposite. VG also has a relatively high resistance to the heat most atomizers put out, while a higher PG concentration might taste burnt at the same wattage.

Nicotine

Safety

Recommended e-liquids

Flavor is subjective and boils down to personal taste: general e-liquid recommendations are hard and established preferences might not apply to e-liquid flavors e.g. one might prefer menthol cigarettes but dislike menthol e-liquid while preferring "tobacco" or coffee flavors. Your tastes will most likely change after you've quit smoking, or you might grow tired of a certain flavor, so it's recommended that you have several or more different preferred e-liquids. Mixtures and bases also vary among vendors so you may find that you prefer a fruit flavor from a certain vendor over others.

Only buy US or EU e-liquids, stay clear of Dekang shit. WESTERN WORLD STRONK.

Israeli and reptilian overlord liquids may also be acceptable.

Recommended brands for newbies in North America

MtBakerVapor
- very cheap, good taste
- customizable PG/VG blend

Fuzion Vapor
- A little pricey, good taste
- any liquid is available with menthol, which is a plus
- all liquids are pure VG

AllAboutVapor
- more expensive, very good taste
- most (I think all, actually) liquids are 60PG/40VG
- 5ml bottles are available at $2.95 a piece, good for trying a bunch of different flavors

Alpha & Omega
- Medium cost
- 70vg/30pg
- Lots of fruits

Suicide Bunny
- Mothers Milk

Once again, taste is completely subjective, and you may not like anything recommended here; however, it's a good place to start, and remember that no two flavors are quite the same. Some flavors even vary from batch to batch.

DIY

Propylene Glycol

Vegetable Glycerin

Distilled H2O

Nicotine

Nitrile gloves

A place to cook, maaaan.

Atomizers

Cartomizers

Good place for new vapers to start. Most convenience store bought non-disposables use pre-filled cartomizers as "refills." Combines atomizer and an absorbent filler material which supplies the heating coil with liquid. Cartomizers themselves are disposable yet can usually be refilled several times before needing replacement. Cartomizers have been known to burn the filler material which freaks some people out.

Cartotanks

Clearomizers

Bottom coil

Kanger Protank 1/2/3

Kanger T3S

Some leaking and gurgling issues occur with both the T3S and the Protanks, however, a DIY fix can be followed here.

Evod

Top coil

Mini Vivi Nova

Kanger T2

Dripping Atomizers

Dripping atomizers are generally used for sampling flavors but they are preferred by many for their clean vape. Bridged atomizers have an additional piece of wicking material above the coil, while Bridgeless atomizers do not. Dripping is a convenience tradeoff, you will have to drip 3-4 more drops liquid into your atomizer very frequently.

Cisco-spec

Atomizer Tanks

AMP Tank

Rebuildable Atomizers

Drunker Tank

Genesis

RSST [Polycarbonate or Pyrex Tank]

The Kraken

AGA-t2

Bottom Fed Tank RBA

Russian [91%]

Fogger [v2, v3, v4]

KayFun [lite, lite +, 3.1 ES] [Note: Fasttech now sells glass tank kits for some KayFun models for very cheap (~$3), so if you want a clear section but are worried about cracking this is a good solution.]

Rebuildable Dripping Atomizers

Magma

IGO-W

IGO-L

Nimbus

Cyclone

The Octopus

The Omega

The Patriot

Trident

T.O.B.H

Stilaire

The Hobo

Mutation X

The Competition Doge

Batteries

Efest IMRs

Samsung Hybrids

AW IMRs

Panasonic Hybrids

MNKE IMRs

Sony [VTC4, VTC5]

LG He2 35 amp limit constant

Chargers

NiteCore

TrustFire TR-001

---TrustFire chargers do not have overcharge protection. Avoid if you don't know what this means.---